I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication, and more specifically to techniques for selecting a wireless communication network for acquisition by a wireless terminal.
II. Background
Wireless communication networks are networks with wireless capabilities that enable wireless terminals to communicate without the use of cables or wires. Wireless networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, etc. These wireless networks may be wireless wide area networks (WWANs) such as cellular networks, wireless metropolitan area networks (WMANs), and wireless local area networks (WLANs).
A wireless terminal (e.g., a cellular phone) may be able to receive service from one or more wireless networks. Upon power up, the terminal may search for a wireless network that is within range and from which the terminal may receive service. If such a wireless network is found, then the terminal may acquire the wireless network and attempt to register with the wireless network. During registration, the terminal may be authenticated and authorized for a requested service by the wireless network or possibly by a home network if the user is roaming. The terminal may then communicate with the wireless network to obtain the desired service, e.g., to originate or receive calls, to access email, to obtain Internet services, etc.
The terminal may not have any knowledge of its operating environment when it is first powered on and may not know which wireless networks, if any, can be acquired. Furthermore, the terminal may have a list of preferred networks whose selection by the terminal is preferred when the home network is not available, e.g., when the user is roaming or is temporarily not within the coverage of the home network. The wireless networks in the preferred list may be selected based on business arrangements between the home network operator and other network operators, service offering, reliability and performance considerations, preferential tariffs, security and privacy considerations, etc.
At power up, the terminal may be within the coverage of zero or more wireless networks, which may or may not be in the preferred list. In this case, the terminal may search for an extended period of time in order to look for one of the preferred networks. The search may be more complex if the terminal supports multiple radio technologies and/or multiple frequency bands, since there may be more combination of radio technology and frequency band to search. During this search time, the user may not be able to originate or receive services such as voice calls, email, and short messages.
There is therefore a need in the art for techniques that allow a terminal to reduce the amount of time to acquire a wireless network, especially when the terminal has little or no prior knowledge of which networks may be available.